I keep wanting to call What Remains of Edith FinchWhat’s Eating Edith Finch?. In a certain way, What Remains of Edith Finch has a few things in common with the film Lasse Hallström’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993). They both feature oddly named characters, they’re both concerned about the way peculiar families function, and they both meditate on death at certain points in their runtime.

It’s this latter element that probably defines the major thematic interest of What Remains of Edith Finch, though, as the majority of the game is spent pondering the inevitable ends of Edith’s peculiar family members.

It has been a year since the release of Inside, Playdead’s follow up to the cult classic Limbo. When I reviewed Inside last June, I talked about its themes but avoided spoiling the game’s ending, so it feels like it has been enough time now to consider that ending and how the game concludes with the embrace of a monstrous embodied form of collectivism.

The little boy that serves as the protagonist of Inside certainly stands out in the washed-out world of Inside. His bright red shirt marks him as unique in a world of muddy gray and starker black and white. This signals his individualism, his heroism, in the game.

Building a fort is a classic form of play. Be your material cardboard, wood, or just the sofa cushions, as a kid there’s something compelling about holing up while imagining battling the forces of evil and also something compelling about building a structure to serve as your home base for a little while.

Some of this pleasure, perhaps, speaks to the appeal of crafting and base building games. From Minecraft to Conan: Exiles to Rust, there’s clearly something bringing gamers back to the idea of spending some time gathering resources, erecting walls, and building a little oasis for themselves in the sometimes difficult environs of these games.